February 2000

Something very odd happened to me today.  I had to give instructions to a 12-14 year old about how to run a program in MS-DOS.  My my... I had to explain what a command prompt was, what "cd" stood for, what that backslash was, and why typing "run" wouldn't do anything.

Now, I may be only 23, but I've been using computers since I was about 6 or 7.  It felt so STRANGE to try to explain DOS to someone who had never seen it!  It really drove home the kind of technological world our kids are growing up in.  Technology is certainly taken for granted... but... sometimes I wonder if the movies may be right.  The Matrix... Terminator... Is that where we're headed?  To a supercomputer that knows it doesn't need a human to help it along?  What if there really IS a huge conspiracy in the government today?   We are so dependent upon technology, that if one group, or one country were to decisively take control of it, we'd be doomed.  People wouldn't know what to do with themselves without computers, phones, television.

I'll admit that sometimes I've wanted to just drop everything and run away to the country and live off the land... but I do so enjoy computers.  Sigh.  I guess I'm a member of that dependent herd of cattle as well.  To each his own, I guess.  Hopefully (selfishly enough) technology won't bite mankind on it's collective ass until after I'm long dead.